Movie Review: Lone Survivor

Lone Survivor is the true story of some locally based NAVY SEALS and their covert mission in Afghanistan. It’s a true story based on the best-selling book by the Lone Survivor… Marcus Lutrell.
SEALS are a special breed as we know here in Hampton Roads… they are part of our community. And this film seeks to show that, to remember that, while telling the story… the entire mission of Marcus’s book and now the movie, IS to tell the story of these men: Matt Axelson, Danny Dietz, Mike Murphy Erik Kristensen, Shane Patton and the others who did not live to tell the story.
The movie begins with a look at how a SEAL becomes a SEAL. How many never make it through the training. How much you have to be able to take mentally and physically in order to earn the right and honor of being a SEAL. And then begins to develop the everyday lives of these men.
When they are dropped into the area for the mission they are normal, all-American guys, trying to maintain a sense of normalcy during their very not normal jobs.
Little did they know that things were about to get very real. When the operation is compromised, it becomes an exercise in integrity for those involved. But also a reminder that they are there to take care of each other. It’s truly a brotherhood. What follows — the engagement with Taliban forces is probably the most realistic, relentless, truth seen on the big screen as to what this kind of fighting looks like.
There are bullets flying, retreats, engagements, more retreats and some nasty falls, and of course 20 lives lost in service to our country. How Marcus Lutrell survives is amazing and seemingly pre-destined. And Marcus Wahlberg in the role does the real man and all he served with justice.
Peter Berg directs this and for every bit of it seems have taken on Lutrell’s mission to tell the true story of some real American heroes. It’s a story told with passion and love. When it comes to awards and nominations, the editing of this film has to be recognized and the sound design as well. I was ducking bullets in the theater.
Lone Survivor is — in a word — overwhelming. It reminds us that people are out there doing things day in and day out for us about which we will likely never know. It made me think about the realities of those heroes, what they withstood, endured and shouldered and what they would never go back home to. It’s hard to watch. Impossible not to be moved by it — And more than anything — it made me walk out of the theater a more thankful American.